Cutter "ballerina" adjustable wood

Did you have to make large holes in wood, plastic or ceramic tiles? Cutting tools for such diameters are hard to get. But sometimes without it to make an exact contour is almost unreal. To cope with such tasks under the force of adaptation, called in common “ballerina”.

Cutters of this type are used for a variety of materials: wood, ceramics, plastics, various composites and even metal. The main difference between them is that the cutting part is small, and is capable of processing only the end zone of the workpiece, or rather its contour. This treatment is designed exclusively for automatic mode from a machine or power tool, such as a drill or a rotary hammer drill. Ballerinas are beneficial because they save a lot of time and effort to cut or mill the exact circumference of large diameters.In this article we will explain how to make such a milling cutter with your own hands from scrap materials. Let's get started! Materials:

Step-by-step production of the ballerina cutter

The basis of our cutter is metal plate. It must be cut to a length of 20 cm.

Mark up the center of the plate, we sharpen and drill with a 10.5 mm drill. This is best done on a stationary drilling machine.

Next, mark up the middle of the strip, and not far from its edges with core marks for drilling. In order not to break the drill during operation, the interval of the hooked marks should be slightly larger than the diameter of the future holes. Drill holes on the marks on both sides of the plate, not reaching the edges and the central hole literally 1 cm.

Holding the plate in a vice, the cutting disc of the grinder connects the holes in two elongated grooves. Modify them with a flat or square file so that the future incisors in them go freely. Also we remove the bumps and burrs.

We press the plate with clamps to the table or grip it in a grip.Use the grinding wheel of its plane, and smooth out the sharp angles and faces. Insert the bolt M10 into the central hole, and press it from the back with a nut. We put the second locknut on top of the first one and also press it with the adjustable or carabiner key.

Working cutters cutters made of M8 bolts. We clamp them by a cap in a vice, we seal the non-affected area with masking tape, and with the grinder, the threaded part of the bolt is actuated.Then turn the bolt over, and grind the opposite part of the bolt, leaving a flat cutting 4-5 mm thick. The tips of the incisors are made in the form of a small one-sided hook, pointed at the end.

Insert the cutter bolts into the grooves of the plate in the opposite direction from the cutter stem. Lay them with washers on both sides to increase the area of ​​contact with the plate. The remaining thread from the side of the cutters allows you to tighten the nut and fix these cutting elements with it.

The peculiarity of this ballerina milling cutter is to set both cutters at the same distance from its center. To do this, we mark with a ruler a gradation of sizes on the side of the plate.We mark the marks with a marker up to half a centimeter. With the grinder we make notches by dimensional marks. So they will last for a long time, and will be easily distinguishable during work.

Expose the incisors to the size of the workpiece. Now, holding it in the chuck of a drilling machine, you can accurately and as quickly as possible cut a large diameter circle, for example, from plywood!